Interview Transcript
Conrad Ross was 14 years old when he wrote his letter to Leonard Bernstein from his Roxbury, New York. Conrad sadly passed away in 2023, but I tracked down his children Ian and Heather via the Binghampton Youth Symphony Orchestra, which Conrad had helped to found in 1961. We agreed to speak in December 2024. Ian and Heather shared their memories of their father’s unlikely journey from his rural upbringing into the classical music world.
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January 30, 1950
Dear Mr Bernstein,
I have heard many of your rehearsals and concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra over the radio, and have enjoyed them very much.
I am 14 years old and as a hobby I collect autographed music, pictures, and letters from well-known musicians.
I also play second cornet in our high school band.
I would appreciate it very much if you could send me some autographed music, a picture, or a letter.
Very truly yours,
Conrad Ross
Roxbury, New York
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Ian: So he was born in 1935, and he was raised in the Catskills, which is a mountain area north of New York City, a few hours north. So it’s pretty rural. So he was born in the middle of the Depression and, you know, into World War Two era.
And it’s actually pretty amazing. You know, I didn’t really think about it as much until after he passed away, like, how amazing it is actually, that he was able to form a career in music. So around age ten, he discovered the trumpet and started studying trumpet, and there was evidently a teacher at the school that recognised his, you know, musical ability and talent, and he studied trumpet, you know, throughout the rest of his growing up years.
And then studied music as an undergraduate and in graduate school. And then he formed a career as a music educator and a performer, and then he did some writing and arranging also when he retired.
So you know, I think the fact that he grew up in such a rural area but was able to somehow connect with classical music and form that as a career is pretty amazing.
Heather: He was always very much into the arts as well. You know, I have a painting that was at my parents’ house that I always loved, you know, growing up and then after my dad passed, we had to move my mom. I took the painting. He had shared with me that … he must have been like 16, 17, 18, and I think the painting was like in the back of a catalogue or something, so he ordered it. And at such a young age, I don’t know. It just struck me as really cool.
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Heather: Our grandfather was a physical education teacher and a coach at the school at the school there in Roxbury, New York, where they lived. And our grandmother was a dietitian at a hospital. We don’t really know much about our grandfather’s family, but I don’t think, on my grandmother’s side, I don’t think anybody else really … like her son I don’t think anybody else was musically inclined.
Ian: No, Dad once said that to me years ago. He was like, I don’t know where the musical genes came from because I think, you know, in our great grandparents generation and before that, they were all farmers or immigrants, really, mostly from Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland.
So it wasn’t until our grandparents generation that they you know, went to college and, like Heather said, our grandfather was one of our grandfathers was a teacher, and then our grandmother was pretty interesting because she worked her way through Cornell University in the 1920s. So for a woman 100 years ago, that was pretty phenomenal. So I think Dad probably got a lot of his interest in education, especially from her, you know, having worked so hard through university.
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Ian: So in the family room in the evenings, you know, even up until the last time I saw him, I mean, he would he would listen to … to concerts. You know, we would all be maybe sitting in the family room. My mom would be reading or doing puzzles or something, and he would put his headphones on, listen to concerts.
So where they live – it’s a city called Binghamton, New York, so it’s in the sort of upstate central region – so he would sometimes pick up radio stations from New York City or even sometimes Philadelphia once in a while he pick up a Canadian station. So but I think, growing up, they must have picked up radio stations I would guess probably from New York City because his town was just a couple of hours away. But that’s probably one of the main ways he got exposed to classical music is my guess because I don’t think they went to concerts.
We had a great aunt and uncle, our great Uncle Bob and Aunt Marian. They lived in Philadelphia in the ’50s, and I know that dad went to stay with them one summer … I guess maybe after high school or during college or something, and, you know, I think he attended a lot of concerts then, so that’s probably the first time he, you know, went to, like, a major symphony concert or something like that.
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Ian: I think he was very much an old soul, even when he was a young person. I mean, the fact that when he was 14, he wrote a letter to Leonard Bernstein, like, you know, that’s, you know, especially, again, for a kid growing up in a rural area, not in a metropolitan area with a lot of exposure to the arts, I think that’s pretty amazing.
I think he liked to write. I found it very interesting that it was typed, not even handwritten.
Heather: He’s sending it to Leonard Bernstein and wanted to make a good impression. That’s what I think as a kid, you know? And maybe his mom or his dad said, Oh, you should type it, and, you know, I don’t know. I’m just trying to picture the conversation or maybe he just thought that all on his own, you know, knowing our dad.
Ian: I do remember even when Heather and I were sort of well into adulthood in our ’20s, ’30s or whatever, he would still type letters. I think the more his later years, I don’t think he wrote as much, but he would, like, handwrite some letters sometimes or cards or whatever.
Heather:Yeah, ’cause I remember getting letters, you know, or like, if he found a cute little comic strip, he knew that one of us would like he’d write a letter with it and mail it to us.
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Ian: I think the fact that he was … Bernstein was trying to educate people about classical music, and that’s where our dad wanted to go with music, I think that’s probably what interested him in what Bernstein was doing.
And, you know, like, as you said, like, you know, classical music, especially, I think the first half of the 20th century in the US was definitely seen as more elitist. I mean, it still is, I think, to a certain extent. But I think people like Bernstein were sort of taking this sort of unique American perspective on classical music and people like Copland – trying to make it more accessible, less sort of highbrow in the US. So I think maybe that’s what sort of drew our dad to those guys?
Heather: I would say I’m sure. To me, I would think that dad was inspired by him, as well.
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Ian: Dad always really liked it when there were patrons of music who really were there because they loved the music or wanted to know about the music. He didn’t like it when people were involved in classical music because it was high society thing to do or whatever, if they didn’t really have the depth about music or understanding or at least interest in it.
You know, he just really had a sort of disdain that would cast a little bit for, like, if people were doing it just because they gave a lot of money to the symphony or whatever the case is kind of thing, right?
I think he had real appreciation when somebody would take the time to really learn something. Like, he was not a faker or a BS-er. He never did he never did anything sort of like in the US, we say just shoot from the hip, you know, just sort of wing it. Like, he didn’t like to do things that way. Like, he really believed in, really knowing what you’re doing and preparing and being ready.
So I think he sort of he didn’t like when someone would sort of just sort of try to talk their way through it or pretend that they know something to make them look important or something like that. He just didn’t really like that. He really valued, I think because he was an educator, he really valued the real information and the knowledge behind it, you know.
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Ian: I think some of the music the dad wrote and arranged for woodwind and brass groups, I think, so the American composer genre really influenced the way he wrote. I think he was Dad was also really interested in jazz too, and I think that sort of influenced some of his outlook on classical music as well and what he did too.
Heather: This is why I chuckle because, you know, I … probably in elementary school, you know, you have friends, you know, and you discover other kinds of music. So I liked rock. I liked pop and, you know, went out to the dance bars and all that stuff as I got older. And so, yeah, neither one of my parents were … our parents … they really didn’t appreciate that.
In fact, I remember one of the music teachers in I don’t remember if it was middle school or high school. I think he did his thesis on the Beatles or something, and I remember our dad saying something about it. Like he kind of was like, that wasn’t…
Ian: I do know on the jazz side, there was a radio programme in the ’80s and ’90s … Marion McPartland, she was a jazz pianist, American jazz pianist, and she would have a piano jazz radio show every Friday night, and he would listen to that a lot.
But yeah, on the pop side, he once in a while would make comments. Like, if he heard a rock song or something like that, he would say, like, ‘Oh, God, that’s so simple’. Not that simple was bad, but, like, you know, one or two chords without the whole song or whatever. It just wasn’t complex or in depth as classical music, you know.
I think, you know, our dad was very much … there’s the phrase, you know, still waters run deep. Like, our dad was very, you know, he was pretty reserved and kind of a quieter, introspective kind of person. But he had a lot of appreciation and knowledge and there was a lot going on internally, I think with him. Yeah. And I remember in 2022, for example, he told me he read 39 books that year. So he was always really … he always wanted to keep learning, you know, and expanding his knowledge and everything.
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Ian: I know he studied trumpet cornet through what we call middle school high school years up until he graduated. And he made the decision somewhere along the way that he wanted to go into music. And then he pursued music as an undergraduate at Ithaca College. And then he then got a master’s degree in music from Indiana University. And then he studied also a little bit at Eastman School and music after that.
And then along the way, he was drafted, served two years in the army. And he played in the military bands, too as well so … he did once say to me that, you know, he wanted to go into education, and the other field he had thought of was becoming an English teacher. But I think he was just so drawn to music. I mean, music, wouldn’t you say Heather, music was really his life?
Heather: I mean, Yeah, it’s what steeped his soul, you know? Yeah.
Ian: Exactly. Yeah. Teaching playing he performed quite a bit. He taught students even after he retired from the educational system, the school system, he had private students, you know, one on one students up until around age 80 or so.
And then he did he wrote programme notes for concerts. He wrote journal articles for the International Trumpet Guild and Woodwind Magazine, and he composed his own music and arranged music for brass quintet. He did all that really up until he died last year. It was a span of 75 years of music, right, or more really?
Heather: I think, you know … what a beautiful legacy to leave because music it’s always there with us. It’s just… you know, I don’t know how to describe it, but I think you understand what I’m saying. It’s just …. it’s there, and he left it there. Like, it’s always gonna live on. And that’s just really cool.
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Ian: It seemed like Bernstein was genuinely interested in his fans, right? I mean, he seemed to be I mean, he was obviously, you know, world renowned and everything at that point in the ’50s. But it seemed like he again, the accessibility piece. He was trying to draw it in more to ordinary people, if you will, or whatever. But it seems like he really seemed to have a genuine interest in connecting with his fan base, right?
He seemed to also be trying to break the sort of European mould of, like, the sort of almost dictatorial place as a conductor, you know, like the conductor, whatever the conductor says is the way it is, like, very undemocratic. And I think, you know, because Bernstein was American, and we just have a different view on things, I think, in the US than in the way things were in Europe, sort of old school view in Europe, like, I think Bernstein seemed to be trying to maybe change that mould, right?